Sharon Hurley Hall

Back in 2016, my Contently portfolio estimated I'd written 677,000 words. Since then, and articles have got longer and more complex. So I'm pretty secure in the claim that I've written more than a million words in the past couple of years - here's my process.

Cart abandonment—it’s a sad fact of life for eCommerce retailers.
As a shopper, you’ve probably abandoned plenty of carts yourself. As a retailer, you often wish that more people would actually complete a purchase instead of leaving their carts behind.
But can you do anything about eCommerce cart abandonment, and win back some of those lost sales?
You certainly can, but there are a lot of different areas to navigate and improve. That’s why we’ve created this in-depth guide to completely demys...

Are you using SEO effectively to boost your business?
SEO is essential to deliver traffic, authority, leads, and sales, but you’ll only get those benefits if you do it right.
If not, your business might as well be invisible online, and who wants that, right?
We know it’s not always easy to stay up to date, but you can’t relax when it comes to SEO.
Google’s always tweaking its search algorithms, so there’s no guarantee that SEO practices that worked in the past will keep working in the future....

Using email marketing is a no-brainer for any eCommerce retailer. In fact, it remains one of the best ways to reach your customers. According to DMA Insight, 99 percent of consumers check their email daily, often multiple times.

Are you using content marketing effectively to reach your customers and grow your business?
These days, content is one of the best ways to raise brand awareness among a targeted audience. Content marketing campaigns can also bring you online authority, web traffic, leads, and sales.
There’s just one problem.
Without the right content marketing strategy, tactics, and tools, you won’t get those benefits.
So how do you avoid wasting your time on the wrong content marketing approach?
Simple. Read...

If you're using the world's most popular content management system, WordPress, to run your business website, it couldn't be simpler to get a new look for your site. That's because all you have to do is find a new WordPress template.

Do you want to know how companies like Groupon, Airbnb, or Dropbox became successful so quickly?
“Slow and steady” doesn’t always win the race – especially in the internet age.
These days, successful startups are using growth hacking strategies to fast-track their success, gaining millions of users in just a few short years.
And it’s not just for startups: any business can use growth hacking techniques to accelerate your success without breaking the budget.
In this guide, we’re going to walk ...

You can quickly and easily create a professional brochure in Microsoft Word using templates.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to make a brochure in Microsoft Word, using a Microsoft Word brochure template.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been tempted to pay for a no-fail, sure-thing writing course, mentorship, or self-help guide from a self-professed expert. You’re not alone. Fake freelance gurus are everywhere in the freelance industry, and they’re dangerous.

Are you looking for a new way to get more traffic to your site, and to reach and engage your audience? Creating a PDF flipbook could be the answer.
Why a PDF flipbook? One word: interactivity.

Social engagement doesn't have to be a time sink. There's a lot you can do in just five minutes a day.

Being overloaded can decrease productivity by up to 68%. So sometimes, the best approach is to do less, and make it count. Here are some tips on the “less is more” approach to productivity.

Freelancing can be a lonely business, especially if you work from home all the time. It can also be isolating. It’s tempting to give in to the hustler’s mentality—the assumption that anyone who does what you do is gunning for your job. But as more creatives pursue freelance recalibrate for long-term careers, hustling and hoarding gigs lose their value as business practices.
Relationships and networking will always be critical, and some of the most important relationships are the ones freelanc...

No matter what business you're in, you can't ignore the potential of the holidays to boost your annual income. Depending on your sector, the National Retail Federation says that holiday sales represent anywhere from 16% to 30% of annual sales. With U.S. sales forecast to exceed $717 billion this year, that's a big chunk of change.
So, how can you get your share of the holiday sales boom? One way is to send emails to your website visitors and customers.